BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO HUMAN REMAINS FROM CEMETERY AREAS TO RECONSTRUCT A NEW BIOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE MEDIEVAL SARDINIAN POPULATION
Bini A., Smith AL., Milanese M.
The paper presents a bioarchaeological analysis of a cemeterial area dating from the 1350s to the late 1700s at Bisarcio, Northern Sardinia (Italy). Historical and archaeological sources were used to consider local demography funerary rituals and the approach to the concept of death of this human group. The bioarcheological methods included macroscopic and biomolecular analyses applied on osteological human remains and burial soil samples providing a biological profile of every skeleton examined, type of activity carried out and the pathologies. These allow a reconstruction of a cross-section of this society, its demographic and social composition, its living conditions, the characterizing pathocenosis, and the sanitation practices at the base of its system and the characteristic type of diet.